1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming system such as a copier or the like having an image memory.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The conventionally known electronic copier for electronically reproducing from image data stored in an image memory has been associated with certain difficulties in image data from plural image sources, because of the limited capacity of the image memory for storing the image data and of the only one processing channel provided in the copier. For example it has been structurally impossible or time-consuming at best to form images on an image recording medium such as paper by a same electronic copier from image data of an original read by an original scanner and image data of a document prepared by a word processor. Even in case such processing is possible, because of the deficient capacity of the image memory or the deficiency in number of processing channels, the electronic copier has been unable to accept the data entry from an image source until the image reproduction for another image source is completed, and has had to handle the image reproduction in the following procedure of:
(1) storing the image data of the original in the image memory;
(2) reproducing image from the data stored in the image memory;
(3) storing the image data of the document in the image memory; and
(4) reproducing image from the data stored in the image memory.
In the above-mentioned manner, in case the original scanner and the word processor are both utilized in the copier, either one of these image sources has to wait until the access of the other to the copier is completed, and the image sources of the electronic copier itself is inevitably associated with a deteriorated efficiency of use, requiring a longer image processing time.